


forget what i need (you're what i want)

by orphan_account



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, High School, M/M, Skank Blaine Anderson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:54:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23786656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Blaine is trouble. Kurt finds himself liking trouble a little too much.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel
Comments: 18
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> blaine is the same age as kurt.  
> starts from early season 2 but in autumn 2020.

"I'll do it," Kurt says confidently, and the Glee Club members look at him with their eyebrows raised. Puck even laughs a little, earning a glare from Kurt.

"No, you're not. You can't even miss a homework deadline without losing your shit. How are you gonna cut class to do this?" Santana snickers.

"I'm proving I can be rebellious, Santana," Kurt frowns as he replies, "I'll be back here for Glee after school with the pack." Without another word, he leaves the choir room and starts to walk across McKinley to where the field is.

Screw his friends in Glee for thinking he wouldn't break the rules and do this.

Mr Schue had told them to do Glee practice at lunch without him because he was caught up in something Kurt doesn't care to remember. No one other than Rachel actually wanted to rehearse, but after some convincing, she too joined them to eat snacks and chat on the choir room floor. The conversation somehow landed on Kurt's complete lack of rebellion in his life. Finn even told them that Kurt had never had a sip of alcohol. That caused an uproar. Quinn then suggested that next period Kurt should go buy a pack of cigarettes from one of the Skanks as a dare.

He's not scared of the Skanks. He hasn't ever done anything to piss them off. 

As the bell for class rings, Kurt arrives at the doors to the field. He inhales sharply before opening them and walking towards the bleachers. He's thankful gym class isn't taking place on the field right now, so no one will catch him. 

He slips under the bleachers and sees one person there, leaning against the fence, cigarette in hand. Blaine Anderson. Kurt couldn't mistake the curly hair and tight pants. Blaine turns around, and his eyes fixate on Kurt. He approaches him with a smirk on his face and slips the cigarette in between his fingers. 

"Shouldn't you be in class, pretty boy?" Blaine raises an eyebrow. 

The name catches Kurt off guard, but he gets his words out, "Just looking to get a pack." He's only ever seen Blaine in the corridors and from across the room in math class last year when the other actually showed up. 

"Sure you are," Blaine laughs, "Who sent you?"

Kurt grinds the heel of his boot against the ground as he spits a reply out, "It's for me, asshole. _I_ want them."

Blaine cocks his head, "Wow, wasn't expecting that," he says, and Kurt grits his teeth, "Just hard to believe _you_ would want cigarettes."

"You don't know me, Anderson."

"You know my name, pretty boy?"

Kurt blushes, but he quickly responds, "Everyone does."

"Yeah... Anyway, I'll sell you a pack if you tell me why you want it?"

"Why should I have to?"

"Babe, there's gotta be a story. You tryna tell me otherwise?"

Kurt scoffs. Blaine is frustratingly charming and attractive, and his names for Kurt aren't helping. He doesn't even think to respond as he fixates on Blaine's lips as the boy takes a puff from his cigarette between them. Kurt looks back up at his eyes, and Blaine is looking at him, a knowing smile on his face.

Kurt tries to hide how flustered he's becoming by starting to talk, "So, uh. My friends in the Glee Club-"

"Glee Club?" Blaine laughs softly, " 'F course you'd be in the Glee Club."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kurt frowns.

"Don't worry about it, babe. Just continue."

Kurt chews at his lip. He kinda wants to punch Blaine for being so condescending. He also wants to kiss him for being so gorgeous. The other is looking at him expectantly, and Kurt realises he hasn't actually continued.

"Oh, uh. So my friends were all saying that I never do anything I'm not supposed to. One of them even mentioned that I've never had alcohol and it was-"

"You're kidding?" Blaine interrupts, and Kurt wants to kick himself for mentioning that.

" 'm not," Kurt eventually replies, and within seconds Blaine has pulled out a flask and is offering it to him. He stares back blankly.

"Take it, then. Might make you less uptight, pretty boy."

"I'm not uptight," Kurt raises his voice, "And don't call me that."

"You're saying now you don't like it?"

Kurt feels his cheeks redden, and he snatches the open flask from Blaine and gulps some of it down. 

"That doesn't taste good," he scrunches up his face and thrusts the flask back at Blaine, who drinks some himself. 

"At least you've had some," Blaine shrugs.

"Yeah. Regretfully so. Anyway, they dared me to come here during this period and buy a pack from one of you but got shocked when I agreed."

"Cool," Blaine says nonchalantly.

"Cool? Is that all you have to say?"

"It's not like it's some groundbreaking narrative, is it? My stories are."

Kurt rolls his eyes, "Yeah, and they probably all involve you doing something illegal or being an asshole."

"Or both," Blaine smiles and Kurt lets himself too.

"So how much for one pack?"

"Eight dollars. I need to make a profit even when selling to cute boys."

Kurt hands over a five-dollar bill and some coins to Blaine, who shoves them in his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes.

"You actually gonna smoke them?" Blaine twirls it in his hand, not giving it to Kurt, who stares at him in disbelief.

"No. Why would I?" he bites his tongue.

"It doesn't hurt to try it. See what it's like."

"That's incredibly inaccurate," Kurt laughs as Blaine shrugs.

"It's up to you, 'f course, but I'm telling you. It's a stress-reliever," Blaine raises his cigarette to his lips. 

Without thinking, Kurt grabs the pack from Blaine and pulls a cigarette out. Something is appealing about breaking another rule, especially with Blaine watching. Smoking once won't kill him. The corners of the other boy's lips turn up as he pulls his lighter out and hands it to Kurt.

Kurt stares cluelessly at the things in his hands, and Blaine laughs gently. He moves to stand less than two feet from him and takes the cigarette so he can place the filtered end in between Kurt's lips. 

"Light the end and suck gently before inhaling a little," Blaine instructs, his eyes locked on Kurt, who does as told before his face scrunches up at the taste of the smoke. "And then hold it in your mouth for another second before moving the cigarette away and breathing out."

Kurt's eyes widen as he sees a small cloud of smoke flow away from him, "You know, that wasn't so bad."

"Keep going, and you'll start to feel the nicotine buzz." Blaine puts his own cigarette out and lights another next to Kurt. "Told you that you should try it, babe," he says as the other boy takes a third puff.

"You don't even know my name," Kurt laughs.

"Don't need to. That way, I call you what I want to," Blaine grins. 

"Kurt. Kurt Hummel."

"Okay, pretty boy," Blaine ignores him, and Kurt rolls his eyes. 

"What's the time now?"

"You think I know?" Blaine pulls a face. Kurt fumbles for his phone to turn it on, sighing.

"It's almost 2pm already," he says when he sees it.

"And? Just skip the rest of this period and next, too."

"I can't do that, Blaine. I have my favourite lesson next period. French."

"And you wanna show up to it smelling of smoke? Your teacher will love you for that."

"How do you get rid of the smell before class?" 

"Most of the time, I don't care enough. For when I do, I keep extra clothes in my locker and hairspray to mask it as much as I can."

"Can I borrow them?"

Blaine laughs loudly, "You think we smoke together once and you can wear my clothes, babe? It's not gonna happen."

Kurt pouts, but he doesn't know what else he expected. He's already wearing his own spare clothes he keeps in case of slushies, due to one thrown at him this morning. He does not want to break into Finn's locker and wear clothes five sizes too big for him.

"Just deal with it," the other boy smirks and Kurt gives in, lighting himself another cigarette. They smoke in silence for the next ten minutes.

"Okay, I'm heading to class," he smiles, "Thanks, I guess."

Blaine nods in response and watches him jog away.

French Class is a breeze as usual after Kurt gets over the look of disgust he gets from his teacher when he passes her desk on the way to his seat. He gets the work completed twice as fast as everyone else, so spends his spare time lost in his thoughts. Thoughts about Blaine Anderson. Does he really think he was pretty? Did he like talking to him?

Soon the bell for the end of the school day rings, and Kurt shoves his books in his locker before heading to Glee Club. He's one of the last to arrive and gets confused looks from Tina and Mike as he passes them. He sits in the corner next to Mercedes.

"Damn, you smell awful," she winces, "Like you actually smoked." Kurt purses his lips but says nothing.

"Okay, Hummel, throw the pack over," Santana demands as she enters the choir room. He complies as she approaches him.

"Told you I would do it," Kurt says smugly.

"I gotta say, I'm impressed you pulled through."

"Dude, why do you smell like that?" Finn speaks up.

"The area under the bleachers stinks of smoke and tobacco. It got stuck in my clothes," Kurt mumbles.

"No, boo. Your breath reeks of smoke right now," Mercedes pipes in and Kurt throws a glare at her.

"Oh my god, you smoked!" Quinn declares before giggling loudly.

"There's no way," Puck sneers and Kurt still says nothing.

"Did you?" Sam frowns, "It's bad for you, y' know." The whole club is staring at Kurt expectantly. 

"I may have tried it. It's not that big of a deal. _You_ guys are the ones who said I should be more rebellious," he mutters, and everyone starts talking over each other.

"Well, _I_ for one, think it was stupid and irresponsible of you, Kurt. As performers, we need to protect our voice, throat and lungs. Smoking does not do that," Rachel announces.

"Geez, you guys are annoying," Kurt raises his voice, "I'm going home early. Tell Mr Schue that I'm sick or something." He pulls his bag over his shoulder and marches out the room, leaving the club staring after him. 

Kurt loves his friends, he does. But sometimes they really get on his nerves. He can never win with them. 

He's thrown out of his thoughts when Karofsky shoves him into the lockers, and he almost falls over. Not being able to find the energy to say anything back, he starts to continue walking, but his eyes land on Blaine. He's staring at him from the other side of the corridor and doesn't even look away when Kurt catches his eye, but he doesn't say anything either.

"What?" Kurt says to him. 

Blaine shrugs and walks away, but Kurt grabs him by the shoulder and turns him around.

"What do you want, babe? I'm busy," he bites his tongue and Kurt frowns. He doesn't even know what to say. Why _did_ he grab Blaine? 

"N-nevermind," he says, and Blaine raises an eyebrow, perplexed. 

"Why's this guy touching ya, Blaine?" one of the other skanks, Ashley, walks up behind Blaine and grimaces at Kurt.

"Did you fuck him or something?" another who's with Ashley laughs. Kurt flushes red, and Blaine smiles. 

"You know I don't fuck guys from school, Jade," he says casually, "No matter how pretty they are."

Kurt can't help the smile that rises on his face when he walks away.


	2. Chapter 2

Kurt shows up to school the next day and smiles his way through the morning lessons, even saying hi to his fellow Glee Club members when he sees them in the corridors. He can't be bothered to be angry with them. Probably because after sleeping on it, he's mad at himself for what he did yesterday. He was careless and as good as it felt in the moment, he knows he shouldn't have been. He got a notice in homeroom that if he has another unexplained absence from a lesson, he'll get a detention. He barely managed to avoid his dad when he got home yesterday, just rushing to the shower.

He's walking the corridor at the start of lunch when he spots Blaine. Kurt doesn't know what he expected to see, but it wasn't this. The boy had gotten bright blue streaks in his hair, had freshly painted black nails and a lip ring since yesterday. His eyes lock on Kurt's, and he cocks his head at him, smiling. 

Kurt doesn't know how he's so confident when he approaches Blaine and speaks, "Where did this all come from?"

"I haven't dyed my hair or gotten a new piercing since May, so I did both last night," he shrugs. Kurt gets a better look at the ring in Blaine's lip, before drawing his eyes up to the multiple piercings in each ear. "You like it though, babe?" The students around them stare at him when he says that and suddenly Kurt feels a lump in his throat and stays silent. "Awh, one second you're all bold talking to me, but as soon as you're blushing, you can't say a thing," Blaine grins.

Kurt walks away, flustered, and he hears the Skanks laughing behind him. Not Blaine though- only the three girls. 

"Why were you talking to Blaine Anderson?" Mercedes appears beside him, and he realises she had seen the whole thing.

"He was the one I smoked with yesterday," Kurt mumbles.

"What? And now you got a thing for him or something? This is the guy that shoves people's heads down the toilet for their lunch money, throws beer bottles at houses, and gets into fights every week either in or out of school."

"I don't," he insists, "I just think he's pretty interesting." Mercedes rolls her eyes before they start walking to Glee Club.

The rest of that day and the next pass by swiftly enough with Kurt focused on his performance for Glee on Friday. Soon he's leaving his final class of the day to go home; Wednesday is the one day of the week they don't have Glee Club after school. And then some hockey players thrust a slushie in his face at his locker. He wipes it off his eyes and shuffles to the nearest girls' bathroom, knowing it'll be empty now school is over.

He gathers as many paper towels as he can from the dispenser to wash the flavoured ice off himself as best he can when the door slams open, and Blaine Anderson walks in. His jeans today are more ripped than yesterday's, and he has a leather jacket on over his shirt. He leans against the wall and lights a cigarette, watching him scrape the slushie out of his hair.

"Why are you here?" Kurt asks.

"I like to smoke in here when it gets too windy outside. It smells better than the boys' toilets," Blaine replies and Kurt rolls his eyes. "But while I have you, I wanna talk." Kurt stares back blankly. "I gotta say that you got some guts. I do respect that. But don't talk to me like you did on Monday or yesterday. Or at all."

Kurt scoffs, "You didn't have a problem with it at the time. You were all sweet to m-"

"I'll be honest with you, babe. My girls pointed out after that I shouldn't treat you like that so openly. It's bad for our reputations."

"I suppose it's not the best for mine with my friends," Kurt sighs, "They found out I smoked."

"Well, it wasn't going to be hard for them to," Blaine chuckles.

Blaine steps behind Kurt and wipes some of the slushie from his shoulders with his hands. 

"So I just can't talk to you?" Kurt frowns.

"Why do you want to?" Blaine grins.

"I, I don't know," Kurt stammers, "You're just nice to me."

"You mean that I flirt with you a bit. I do it with a lot of guys." Kurt bites his lip and hates how Blaine's words make his heart drop a little. "Look, you wanna talk to me? Call me. Just don't bore me."

"I don't even have your number," Kurt says quietly.

"Yeah you do," Blaine throws Kurt's phone at him, and he fumbles to catch it.

"How did you-" Kurt stares at the phone in his hand and feels up his back pockets in disbelief.

"Distracted people are easy to pickpocket," Blaine winks before leaving him alone in the toilets.

Sometimes Kurt wishes he could be like Blaine, who's also openly gay but never gets shit for it other than a homophobic comment here and there. Not even the footballers dare to touch him, though. They all know they could end up with their tyres slashed, a black eye or worse.

When Kurt gets home, he finds that Carole and Finn are over and says hello to them both before helping Carole make lasagne for dinner. He loves how sweet she is and how she listens when he rants about how annoying some of his teachers are and how he can't wait for Glee on Friday. 

At six, all four of them are sitting at the dining table for dinner. Finn is entertaining his dad and Carole with stories about Glee Club that week, with Kurt chiming in here and there with witty comments.

"Kurt missed Rachel's outburst at Glee after school on Monday. Y' know, 'cause he was angry with us for the whole cigarette thing and-"

"What cigarette thing?" his dad interrupts, looking sternly at them both.

"Oh, he bought cigarettes from one of the Skanks after Quinn-" Finn cuts himself off when Kurt sends daggers at him.

"Kurt, what's he talking about?" Burt asks solemnly.

"Well, the Glee Club dared me to cut class to buy a pack of cigarettes from one of the Skanks under the bleachers," Kurt mutters.

"Who are the Skanks?"

Finn stops shovelling food into his mouth to speak, "They're like the really bad kids."

"Why are you still talking, Finn?" Kurt snaps.

"Leave him alone, Kurt.  _ You _ want to tell me more or him?" Burt says.

Kurt sighs, "Fine. The Skanks are the group who smoke and get into fights and stuff. They bully people, get tattoos and piercings and cut class all the time. Kinda threatening, I guess."

Burt raises an eyebrow, "And you thought it would be a good idea to agree to this dare?"

"Well, nothing bad happened."

"Dude, you like sm-" Finn interjects but is immediately cut off by Kurt kicking his leg under the table.

"Two weeks, Kurt," Burt says, "You're grounded for two weeks."

"What? That's ridiculous!" Kurt says sharply.

"I think it's ridiculous that you missed out on your education to do something so foolish. Anyway, enough of this, eat your food."

"I'm full," Kurt announces, leaving the table suddenly and thumping his way to his room in the basement. He spends the rest of the evening drowning himself in schoolwork until it's 10pm and he starts to feel himself tire. After completing his skincare routine and brushing his teeth, he gets into bed and checks his phone.

Blaine had created a contact for himself on it, and Kurt contemplates texting him so they can call. What does he say? What do you talk about with someone like him? After a few minutes, he concludes he needs to stop giving a shit and just talk to him.

_ Kurt: hi it's kurt, so u can save my number _

He doesn't know why he expected Blaine to be someone who quickly replies because it's been half an hour without him having read the text; Kurt thinks he should just go to sleep. He throws his phone on his bedside table and turns over in his bed in an attempt to get comfy.

It's at that moment his phone rings loudly, and Kurt doesn't like the way his heart flips when he reads the contact name "Blaine".

He quickly answers and shoves the phone to his ear.

"Hi," he says, a smile on his face.

"You done the biology homework?" Blaine asks.

Biology is one class he shares with him this year, but they sit on opposite corners of the room and Blaine has only showed up to maybe three of the lessons. Considering it's only mid-September right now, that's not the worst. He's just surprised Blaine even knows Kurt's in his class.

"Uh, yeah. The piece due tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Can you read your answers to the questions for me?"

Kurt bites his lip; Blaine only called to copy his work. And he doesn't even know why he spends the next ten minutes reading his answers to the other. He rarely gives people his homework, especially pieces that take him over an hour. 

"Thanks, babe," Blaine says after he finishes writing the last answer down, "I'll see-"

"No," Kurt says.

"No?" Blaine laughs, "What does that mean?"

"You can't just call me for my homework and then hang up. Is that the only reason you gave me your number?" Kurt winces as he asks, anticipating the answer he doesn't want.

"Is it a big deal if I did?" Blaine's voice lowers.

Kurt scoffs, "You know it is because I told you I wanted to talk to you. Do you just not care?"

"I really don't, Kurt. Also, you're not special; I'm not going to be your friend." Everything about that hurts him. Blaine even called him by his name for the first time. It's been three days that they've known each other, but Blaine's words still hurt him. He feels dumb for even thinking he could be friends with the guy after smoking with him once. Within a second, Blaine has hung up, and he's left feeling dejected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i might not be able to get the next update out tomorrow? it might be saturday instead. but anyway let me know what u think so far.


	3. Chapter 3

Kurt doesn't even look at Blaine in their biology lesson the next day and ignores him when he sees him walking the corridors. He had been in the boys' toilets that lunch, helping wash a slushie off of Sam when Blaine had come thundering in, gripping a hockey player by their shoulder. He shoved them against the wall after the door slammed shut. Kurt and Sam exchanged confused looks but said nothing, just walking out quietly. They heard the echo of a pained groan behind them, but they knew better than to get involved.

The rest of the day is peaceful enough for Kurt, and when Friday lunch arrives, he nails his performance for Glee, earning more than sufficient praise from his friends. It really brightens up his week.

Considering he's grounded, he doesn't expect his weekend to be any more exciting than it ends up being. He watches a few movies- scrap that. He basically just has Moulin Rouge on loop for the whole two days while he collates outfit ideas. It hits him on Sunday night that he has a test the next morning for AP English Lit, and he has not studied for it at all. It takes hours to revise Othello. Kurt isn't one to curse, but he does swear under his breath when he realises and decides to sacrifice his sleep and skincare in favour of studying.

It doesn't pay off. Kurt falls asleep by 12am anyway and is too tired to concentrate on his test first period. He barely writes two and a half pages in the hour he's given and most of that he pulled out of his ass anyway. Kurt groans when the bell rings and his teacher collects his paper. He could've done so much better.

The jocks seem to know that he's feeling especially terrible today because they seem to be making his life a living hell more than usual. He got pushed into the lockers more times than he can count and slushied twice. 

"Why the long face, Kurt?" his Dad asks when he gets home that day.

"Hard day," is all he says in response before heading to his room to wash his hair after the intense slushie treatment. It takes a long time to style up again after too. He initially had plans to meet Mercedes at Breadstix for dinner today, but of course, he can't do that. After eating some soup, he distracts himself from stress by making a friend for his hippo brooch. He smiles at how the little tiger brooch turned out. He handmade it, so it's not as impressive as the store-bought hippo one, but he's proud of it either way.

Tuesday is pretty much the same pace, but Mercedes makes him smile with her solo in Glee. He gets to school early on Wednesday and meets her in the courtyard to catch up.

"You did not tell that to Rachel," Kurt gushes when Mercedes informs him of what she said to Rachel in Glee yesterday while he was in the toilets. Apparently, she wouldn't shut up about her need for a weekly solo from then on, because she needs to maintain her confidence. She was clearly reaching for more time in the spotlight; no one's a more confident performer than her.

"So, how are you holding up? You've been a little down the last two days," Mercedes asks, her tone concerned.

"I'm okay. Just feeling rough because of a test and the increased tormenting lately."

"You can tell a teacher, Kurt. Tina and I would be happy to tell them we've seen it happen."

"It's fine, Mercedes. It's my fight, and I don't want to drag anyone into it or make it worse."

"Yeah," she rubs his shoulder to comfort him, "You haven't been talking to Blaine Anderson still, though?"

"No," Kurt mutters, "He's an asshole."

"Exactly, keep your distance from him."

"Yeah."

It's not long until homeroom then so they part ways to head to their respective classrooms. Kurt has a little spring in his step after talking to his closest friend until he realises he gets his English test back first period. He's dreading it.

31%. That's the abysmal score on the front of Kurt's essay when he gets it back.

"Mr Hummel, see me at my desk, please," his teacher says quietly before continuing to hand back the papers. Kurt swallows. He nervously approaches her desk, essay in hand and sees the grim expression on her face.

"You see, you were permitted to be part of this AP class because you did quite well in high school level English Literature last year and there was a spare space in this class. But this is the most simple essay question you'll have to do all year, Mr Hummel. And you barely grasped the foundations of the inference and analysis for Othello in your short essay. You didn't use your contextual knowledge, and you misunderstood the characters," his teacher shakes her head. "I firmly believe this class will be too advanced for you, so I'm moving you to the high school level contemporary literature class for this year. You can choose to take this class during your senior year if you excel in contemporary literature."

Kurt's heart drops. How did he mess up so badly?

"If you can pack up your things and head to Mrs Trotter's room now, that would be great," she forces a smile. The other juniors and seniors in the room stare at him as he picks up his pencil case and books to leave. It's humiliating.

He knocks on the door of Mrs Trotter's room before entering. The whole class stares at him briefly while his new teacher grins.

"If you can just sit at the front next to Mr Anderson, that would be great."

Did he hear that right? His eyes dart towards the front corner, where he sees Blaine looking back at him. The boy's feet were up on the seat that was now Kurt's, and he was playing with his helix piercing and quite clearly chewing gum instead of writing notes like the rest of the class. This is a joke, Kurt thinks.

He makes his way towards his desk and looks at Blaine expectantly.

"Can I sit, then?" Kurt hisses.

Blaine doesn't say anything when he turns to actually face the front of the room, his feet on the ground. Kurt sighs before dumping his stuff on the desk and sitting beside the boy who's barely listening to Mrs Trotter. He tries to start writing points down, but he can see Blaine is playing with the ring on the corner of his bottom lip with his tongue. Up close, Kurt can see the eyeliner Blaine has on too. He doesn't even notice he's started staring until Blaine talks.

"Aren't you supposed to be working, babe?" he whispers.

Kurt goes red before snapping back, "You're one to talk. And don't call me that anymore." Blaine shrugs, and Kurt goes back to jotting notes down.

The next half an hour passes by excruciatingly slowly as Kurt deals with having to do all the paired work himself.

"You know, if you wanna actually get anywhere, you might want to write something down and do actual work," Kurt says casually.

"I do well in subjects I care about," Blaine spits, "And I don't exactly care about contemporary literature."

"Oh? You do care about something?"

"Graphic design, photography and music theory. Those are the classes I care about. And I'm really good at them, so fuck off."

Kurt didn't expect that. Though, he should've figured that Blaine was doing well in some subjects because he wasn't being held back or anything.

"Sorry," he mutters, "I just wish you'd help me out in the work we're supposed to do together."

Blaine sighs, "Fine. What are we doing?"

Kurt explains the work, and they end up getting enough done by the end of the lesson that their teacher is satisfied.

"Why are you in this class anyway?" Blaine asks as they pack up.

"Oh, uh, I messed up my test in the AP class," Kurt says nervously, and Blaine nods.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Kurt," he says before leaving the classroom. Maybe this class won't be the worst, Kurt thinks.

It's Wednesday, so Glee is only at lunch, and it goes by pretty quickly. Santana sings a compelling solo and Finn and Puck do a cool duet.

When he shows up to his contemporary lit class the next day, Blaine isn't there yet. When the bell rings to signify the start of the lesson, he's pretty sure the other is skipping it, and Kurt hates that it disappoints him a little. The first half of the hour is spent glancing at the door, and he knows it's because he's hoping Blaine will come in late and sit beside him. He doesn't.

Glee is a lot of fun that day. He does a duet with Rachel in the choir room, and he chats with Mercedes about the online sales on Nordstrom. He gets harassed by Jacob Ben Israel to comment on the trauma inflicted by Will Schuester's rapping, which he does have to laugh at. However, he doesn't manage to save himself from falling when he gets pushed into the lockers, and he bruises his elbow pretty badly. This is one of those times it's hard to suck it up.

On Thursday, Blaine arrives late to the lesson, but Kurt is kind of glad he's there.

"Why are you late?" Kurt asks as Blaine sits sideways on his chair, legs next to Kurt.

"Was at the principal's office," Blaine replies calmly.

"And you just skipped yesterday?"

He nods, "Didn't feel like being stuck in this room. It almost cost me another detention, though. Most of the teachers have given up on giving me them for catching me cutting class, but some still care."

Kurt glances down at Blaine's hands; his nails were now dark red.

"I like your nails," Kurt says awkwardly.

Blaine laughs softly, "Thanks, I guess."

Kurt starts working through the questions set on the board, while Blaine fiddles with the rings on his hands and stares out the window beside him.

"Mr Anderson, start working, please," Mrs Trotter says sharply, and Kurt sees Blaine stifle a laugh. It makes him smile a little.

The next week or two pass by like that. Kurt's holding up okay. His conversations with Blaine during class make his day more tolerable too.

"You can't say that, Blaine," Kurt had scolded him playfully one day. He had made a joke about him going down on their biology teacher's twenty-year-old son to get him to change his grade on her computer.

Another day, they had a conversation about musicals, much to Kurt's surprise.

"I have some culture, Kurt," Blaine had said before moving his legs to rest upon Kurt's lap.

He hates Blaine a lot less than he did after that one phone call. He still detests all the things Blaine has been doing in and out of school that he hears about. All the Skanks had apparently smashed the windows of someone's car at a party before they left, for no good reason. There's word that Blaine drunkenly fought some guy in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot because they called him a faggot for having nail polish on. From what Kurt knows, Blaine's only been arrested a few times, and that was one of them.

For now, though, he doesn't mind the way the smell of smoke reminds him of talking to Blaine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> skank!blaine is 80% asshole 20% playful i think.
> 
> anyway tell me if u like this story/chapter :D


	4. Chapter 4

It's early October, and Kurt is spending his time after school on Monday in his dad's tyre shop. He's passing tools to his dad as he reads a magazine he picked up that morning, waiting for Tina to show up so they can go to the movies.

"You're especially quiet today, buddy," his dad says after he closes the hood of the car. "Usually you're over the moon to tell me about the latest line from Fandy or whatever it's called."

"Fendi, Dad," Kurt mumbles. "And school was just tiring today. Boring lessons," he lies. He had ended up in the nurse's office that day. Mercedes had insisted when she saw him bang his head as a result of Azimio shoving him into the lockers especially hard. He still has a headache from it.

"I see." His dad sees Tina waiting outside and taps his shoulder to let him know, "Have a good time."

Kurt forces a smile back before starting the walk to the cinema with Tina. The movie they watch ends up being pretty good actually, and he's glad he got some time to enjoy himself without stressing. It's starting to get dark as Kurt walks from Tina's house to his, so he picks up his pace. He passes McKinley on his way home, and even though it's now almost 8 pm, Blaine is pulling out of the parking lot on his motorbike. They make eye contact, and Blaine slows down to a stop next to him on the sidewalk.

"What are you still doing here?" Kurt asks after Blaine takes his helmet off, "I'm surprised the school isn't even closed yet."

"They rent rooms out until 10, so it's open," Blaine says, "And I didn't feel like going home yet. My brother's in town, and he's not exactly cool with all of this." He gestures to his hair and bike.

"But your parents are?" Kurt raises an eyebrow.

"Are you on your way home?" Blaine completely ignores his question.

"Uh, yeah."

"Do you want a ride?"

Kurt's mouth drops, and he frantically shakes his head, "No thanks, I'm not getting on that." He points to Blaine's bike.

"You sure? It's pretty late."

"I'm sure," Kurt says nervously.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Blaine pulls his helmet back on and starts his bike up, before speeding off onto the road. Kurt doesn't know why he's disappointed; he said no to him, but it's like he wishes Blaine had insisted or walked him home instead.

He walks even faster until he gets home.

The next day, Kurt's sitting in his contemporary lit class with Blaine, who has finally shown up after skipping the past three lessons. Blaine has started calling him pet names again, and he doesn't feel like stopping him.

"Fuck, this is boring," Blaine complains for the fifth time in the first half of the lesson.

"At least it's not Shakespeare," Kurt says as he writes down relevant quotations from the novel they're currently studying.

"The only thing I'm grateful for," Blaine sighs, "Can we just talk about something enjoyable?"

"I don't really think that we find similar things enjoyable."

"We could talk about sex. You can't tell me that you don't find that enjoyable, babe."

Kurt blushes before turning to him, eyes wide, and responding loudly, "No, Blaine!"

"Quiet down," Mrs Trotter mumbles at him, before resuming her grading.

"I didn't lie," Blaine shrugs, and Kurt hits his shoulder playfully.

"Alternatively, we could talk about our favourite movies or TV shows," Kurt grins.

"I don't exactly spend my days binging stuff on Netflix," Blaine scratches the back of his head.

"You've got to have seen some stuff recently," Kurt pouts.

"I watched some NCIS last Thursday when it was raining outside."

"Oh, that was on in the background while I did homework! I wasn't really paying attention, though, so I don't know what happened."

"Well, what about movies like you said? I like action movies. The Dark Knight is the only movie I've seen more than three times."

"What's that?"

"You're screwing with me, right?" Kurt shakes his head in response. "You have to watch it. It's Batman, and it's the only thing I have on DVD."

"I'll watch it if you watch West Side Story like I told you to."

Blaine laughs, "I'll consider it."

"Before we met, I just thought all you did was, you know, fight people and smoke," Kurt says, and Blaine laughs, "But you actually do normal stuff."

"Yeah, babe. I'm not the worst person ever."

"Debatable," Kurt replies, and Blaine shoves his thigh jokingly, but he winces and bites his lip.

"You okay? I didn't mean-" 

"I just have a bruise there. It's fine," Kurt brushes it off. Blaine nods.

The rest of the morning and Glee at lunch is relaxed enough for Kurt. He's texting Mercedes and is about to go to biology when Karofsky throws his phone to the ground and shoves him against the lockers, harder than he has ever before. The bang rings in Kurt's ears, the pain of the collision with the metal echoing in his bones, and he swears he can feel a bruise on his shoulder starting to form. By the time he pulls himself out of the shock, Karofsky is about to go into the boys' locker room.

Kurt chases after him. The next thirty seconds confronting Karofsky are a blur of angry yells about what a vile, cowardly person he is and how Kurt isn't afraid of him. Then Karofsky kisses him.

He stares back, mortified as Karofsky bangs his locker shut and glares at the ground. He's never felt more scared and mistreated. The bell rings for class, and he doesn't care that he's now late. He starts to cry as Karofsky leaves the room. His body is frozen in fear and disgust, and it takes him a minute to get himself together and process what happened.

He doesn't go to biology. He slips out to the field and runs to the bleachers in the hope that Blaine is there. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees him leaning against the fence, smoking, under the bleachers. He drags his feet towards him, cheeks wet and eyes red, and Blaine stares back at him, confused.

"What happened?" he says, voice slightly perturbed. Kurt decides to tell Blaine in that moment because he's too overwhelmed. 

"Karofsky pushed me into the lockers, and I chased after him into the locker room, because I'd had enough. And, and, he kissed me," Kurt sobs. 

Blaine's mouth drops, and he puts out his cigarette to talk to him properly.

"Oh, Kurt," he bites his lip. 

Kurt knows that this time, Blaine's saying his name because he's seriously concerned for him, not because he's angry and it's somewhat comforting.

Blaine continues, "I'm sorry, fuck. I can't believe he did that." He places his hand on Kurt's gently. 

Kurt looks at Blaine's chipped navy blue nails before looking back up at his face. He doesn't think and hugs Blaine's waist, tightly, crying softly into his ripped shirt. He knows he probably shouldn't, but he doesn't expect to then be roughly shoved away.

"Don't do that, Hummel," Blaine says sharply. "I told you- you're not special, and I don't have time for you to hug me and cry on my shoulder."

"But you care!" Kurt says.

"I feel sorry for you having been assaulted like that. That's it. I don't want to hug you, or be close to you."

"Why? What's the big fucking deal, Blaine? What are you so afraid of?" Kurt raises his voice.

"I just, I don't hug people. It's been years since I've even hugged my mom or my brother."

Kurt's heart then breaks a little for Blaine; he's not used to affection at all.

"Oh, Blaine."

"Don't fucking pity me, Hummel. I'm fine."

"I just think that you should have some care and love in your life," Kurt says.

Blaine glares at him. "I think I'm okay with my life the way it is."

"You can accept affection and keep up your Skank persona, Blaine. I know you think that it makes you look soft or whatever, so just accept it when no one is watching. You deserve to be comforted when you need it. And you deserve to smile a little too."

"You think I deserve that with the shit I do?"

"I think you'd deserve it more if you didn't do that stuff."

"I don't actually do most of it. I just say it to keep people scared of messing with me. And then others just make up their own rumours about me." Kurt stares back at Blaine, shocked.

"What about the times you got arrested for fights and stuff?"

"That all happened, but I never started the fights. I'm just the one who looks like they caused the trouble when the police show up. And when it went to court once, well, no homophobic judge is going to side with someone like me, who looks like me. Yeah, I smoke, I drink, I get high. I've broken some private property in my time and stolen some shit. But I'm not as bad as I make myself out to be."

"What about the time you fought that hockey player in the toilets? My friend Sam and I saw you. You started that."

"He tried to get Ashley to go have sex with him in one of the supply closets, and he wouldn't stop touching her when she said no. That's why I fought him."

"I understand. So yeah, you deserve to smile and receive affection, Blaine. I definitely stand by that now." Kurt smiles.

"It's funny how you came here because you were crying, Kurt, but you've got us both smiling a little now."

"So can I hug you?"

"Don't test me, babe," Blaine grins as he passes Kurt a cigarette and his lighter.

"At least I have a change of clothes in my locker this time," Kurt laughs before lighting the cigarette.

Blaine pats his shoulder, and Kurt jumps in pain.

"It's all from being pushed into the lockers, right?" Blaine asks sympathetically, "Your shoulder and your thigh." Kurt nods. "Hopefully he'll leave you alone now. Because you could out him."

"I wouldn't out him," Kurt says, "But I hope you're right anyway."

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was a few hundred words shorter than usual but i imagine next chapter will be longer than usual so :D
> 
> ok blaine is less of an asshole now which is cool


End file.
